Photoshop, note apps, streaming, and now your diary. Everything is a subscription. It makes sense for some things, but not your diary.
You are building a record of your life. Storing your thoughts, milestones, and memories. A diary is not a workspace. It is where you record your life.
The Subscription Trap
If you pay Day One $50 a year, you are renting your own memory lane. The moment you stop paying, they lock you out. Over ten years, that is $500. Just to store text files.
Why we charge once ($89)
We think that's wrong. We designed OhDiary with a simple promise:
Pay Once
No recurring billing. No auto-renewals. Pay once, get full access to writing, email prompts, and memory flashbacks forever.
Export everything
Export your entries in standard JSON or PDF at any time. No paywalls, no locking you in.
Is this sustainable?
Yes. Storing text databases is cheap. OhDiary runs on a clean, simple Rails setup. A single $89 payment pays for your database storage for decades.
We've been running since 2016. We aren't venture-backed. We don't answer to investors. We only answer to the people who write here.
"I want a diary that is still there—unchanged, un-paywalled, and full of memories—when I'm 70."
Try it free for 30 days
No credit card required. Write, get the daily emails, see your flashbacks. If it becomes a habit, pay once. If it doesn't, export your entries and keep them. We won't delete them.